Giulia Farnese

Giulia Farnese (1474-23 March 1524) was the sister of Pope Paul III and the mistress of Pope Alexander VI.

Biography
Giulia Farnese was born in Canino, Lazio, Italy in 1474 to the House of Farnese, a family that was descended from Pope Boniface VIII; her older brother would go on to be Pope Paul III. In 1489, she married Orsino Orsini, and she entered into an unhappy marriage; she refused to deny him her body, but when she became pregnant, she had the child killed. In 1492, she came to Rome to confess to Pope Alexander VI, who decided to start a love affair with her by showing her a tunnel leading directly to the Vatican. Farnese and the Pope slept together, and he decided to have her painted. By November 1493, she was living with the Pope's daughter and her close friend, Lucrezia Borgia, in a palace next to the Vatican. In 1493, she had her brother created a Cardinal by influencing her lover's choices. She fell out with the Pope by 1500 due to her young age and his old age, but the break was made amicably. She then moved to Carbognano, and she became Governor of Carbognano in 1506. She was an able, firm, and energetic governor, and she retired in 1522, when she returned to Rome, where she died.